Türkiye - January 2023

Dr Şebnem Korur Fincancı, the head of Turkey's medical association, a forensic expert and a human rights activist, has been sentenced to nearly three years imprisonment on charges of disseminating “terrorist propaganda” following her calls for investigation of the army’s alleged use of chemical weapons against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. She was eligible for release and is expected to appeal the verdict. Rights groups described the case as a bid to silence her and other activists, pointing at the lack of judicial independence and the mounting crackdown on human rights by the government. The World Medical Association said the case was “unfounded, unlawful and unacceptable”, while the Standing Committee of European Doctors called it “a continuous harassment of the Turkish Medical Association.” The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by the EU, US, Turkey and much of the international community, had published a video showing Turkish military releasing a substance into a cave and revealing the consequences it had on the fighters. The Turkish government denied these claims and accused Fincancı of lending credibility to the PKK while defaming the Turkish military.

Sources: British Broadcasting Corporation, Stockholm Center for Freedom, Frontline Defenders, Amnesty International, The Lancet